In a local area network (LAN) environment, a user may desire to connect a host computer (e.g., a PC) to the LAN in order to communicate with a particular device on the LAN. For example, the LAN may be an Ethernet LAN and a device connected to the LAN may be a welding power source that is Ethernet capable. For older products, communication was often accomplished by a serial port instead of by Ethernet, but newer products are often Ethernet capable. The user may desire to communicate with the device in order to, for example, diagnose a problem with the device, extract and record data logs from the device, update the programmable firmware of the device, or monitor a process performed by the device (e.g., a welding process).
One of the hurdles in communicating with a device on a LAN is the initial establishment of communication with the device. For example, a user may connect a host computer to a LAN and may desire to communicate with a particular device on the LAN via the host computer. However, the user may not know the IP address of the device and, therefore, may have to waste time tracking down the IP address of the device. Furthermore, even if the user knows the IP address of the device, the user may not be network savvy and, therefore, may not know how to set up the host computer using the IP address of the device to connect to the device. As a result, the user may have to contact an IT person to help establish communication between his host computer and the device on the LAN.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional, traditional, and proposed approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such approaches with embodiments of the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.